What Should We Do With 125,000 Out Of Work Mortgage Bankers?
Today CNNMoney profiles an out of work mortgage banker who has been sending out 10 resumes a day since he was laid off in Feburary. He just got his first interview.
This week, things are are looking up. Hager, a Jersey City, N.J., resident, went on one interview for a fraud investigator job at a mortgage insurance company and another for a position underwriting employee dishonesty insurance. Executives at the latter told him they'd make a decision within 10 days.He used to work for Countrywide and now is hoping to "get his foot in the door" anywhere, even if it's just as as a bank teller. Anyone got a job for Josh?He doesn't know what next week will bring.
"It's always flowed for me," said Hager, 29, who discovered his love of math and finance in high school in Proctorville, Ohio, about three hours southeast of Columbus. "I've always had a job and every time I changed jobs, it was for advancement. Now, it's like 'What do I do with myself because I can't wait for that next step.' "
Hager has joined nearly 125,000 others on Wall Street and at mortgage firms and other financial companies who received pink slips since the start of 2007. It seems that nearly every week another financial firm lets go of thousands of workers at all levels. With the market flooded, it's hard for the unemployed to land a job, experts said.
10 resumes a day, no takers [CNNMoney] (Thanks, Matthew!)
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Um, I say we put them to work in a GSE's "Loss Mitigation" department to help clean up the mess they made!
Enlist? They are good liars, maybe be political speech writers.
My advice is to start drinking heavily.
What Should We Do With 125,000 Out Of Work Mortgage Bankers?
Change a light bulb?
>_>
I've got a wonderful idea for a low-cost protein substitute. I'm calling it Soylent Green. All I need are about 125,000... investors.
Home repair. They can repair the homes their forclosed on previous customers are now trahing.
What other sectors of our economy need to be tanked? All those mortgage brokers should go work there. How about he goes and volunteers at Soup Kitchens? Or goes to New Orleans and helps rebuild housing? Something useful that contributes to the betterment of people's lives, instead of destruction. (yeah, I'm a little bitter about choosing a safe path, but still having to pay for the bailouts. Deal.)
HEY! Wouldn't this be good for AT&T? They had trouble looking for capable workers.
Better yet . . . they could get work as handymen (and handywomen) helping to make repairs at "half of foreclosed homes nationwide that have "substantial" damage."
There's something calming about the image of some subprime-writing chump scraping up weeks of animal waste from a filthy floor.
Put them in the Army.
To paraphrase a popular lawyer joke... the bottom of the ocean would be a good start.
In all seriousness though, this will only making trying to get an "unrelated to my field" job (Jiffy Lube, Walmart Stocker, Home Depot Clerk) all the more difficult to get.
theres a lot of real estate for sale. maybe they could be realtors.
@AlteredBeast: Keyword "capable". As in: Not morally bankrupt and responsible for the untimely demise of they company they worked for.
Who the hell would hire some guy with that haircut? The Jimmy Neutron look isn't what I'd call professional.
ethics classes?
Isn't AT&T hiring?
Good luck to him in finding a job but his story is no different from the hundreds of thousands of other unemployed Americans out there.
I got laid off in October as did 10 other people I worked with. I sent out resume after resume after resume. I had a few interviews here and there but it was early January until I started work again. Where's my CNN feature? I can look just as desperate and despondent as this guy.
Being laid off is a humbling experience, especially if you think that you 'deserve' to be employed. I found it very hard to be critical of other's actions on the job...i.e drive thru workers, dry cleaning employees...they were working to pay the bills which was more than could be said for me.
He could be a model for generic photos that blogs/websites post with their stories. Photos with a "no sympathy for yuppies" tag.
He chose the wrong industry. Every industry has it's ups and downs. The IT has a huge debacle in the early 2000s and a lot of people lost their jobs. It happens to the best of us. This also is a great way for creative destruction. If one industry is dying, that motivates you to maybe go work for another industry.
Ya know, if they're having trouble making ends meet they may want to consider one of those new sub-prime mortgages.
I just can't bring myself to feel a lot of sympathy for this guy. If it was the mortgage broker that did my 1st home purchase I would feel bad. Her name was Jessica, and she was everything I imagined a mortgage broker was. She was our advocate, and felt like a friend by the end. She fought tooth and nail for us to get the best possible terms. That was back in 2001.
I've and purchased 2, and sold 1 home since then due to moves, and in both cases was struck a little dumb by the "fast and loose" feel to the process in more recent times. Hell back in 2003 when we purchased our second home the broker tried to sell us on one of those mortgages that went variable rate after 2 years (we were in a 0 down situation). I mentioned it seemed "a little risky" and he said "oh everyone is doing this now just refinance when your home is worth more".
So now I also am feeling a little burned having chosen a home at a more "reasonable" price for our third home (sold the second after 2 years at a slight (5%) profit, and also playing it safe. I have to now watch my tax dollars be spent bailing out big business. It's not even bailing out the poor slobs who got taken in by those slick brokers. It's bailing out the guys who made millions off these loan securities ... someone please point out how this is helping my neighbor ... anyone?
Can't help him with a job, but I'd be happy to help him out with a loan. I am thinking maybe a Home Equity Line of Credit. I offer a teaser rate of prime -2 for the 1st six months, then the rate goes up according to a mixture of astrological charts, tea leaves, and the LIBOR. It has a Maximum yearly cap of any base 2 number I am currently thing of with a lifetime maximum cap of 125% the sum of the digits in your social security number multiplied by your height. No credit checks, no upfront fees, just your house in about 18 months.....
Hey, don't worry, the Fed is dropping interest rates towards the free money area again. The next bubble is just around the corner.
@louv: There are sectors of the economy that haven't been tanked? Bush needs to get on that right away!
I hear the army needs people.
@GrantGannon: I totally agree with that. When I was unemployed a few years ago it was for 6 months, it was an incredibly depressing experience. I looked all over for any kind of job, I ended up working 3 jobs until I found one job that could replace my income.
I currently work in the Compliance Department of a mortgage company whose ship, luckily, did NOT sink last year. I have to fight Sales (or "mortgage bankers", "loan officers", what have you) all the time over remaining compliant, making sure they are licensed, educated and protecting our borrowers privacy.
Some days it seems as though these guys are nothing better than car salesmen (some of them WERE car salesmen) and care about nothing more than their own bottom line (yes I am making gross generalizations, but I have seen very few bankers with whom I would trust to do a loan for me. YES - there are honest and hard-working people in this field, but they normally don't work on commision.)
After witnessing much of what I have over the past couple years, I have to say that I AM NOT SURPRISED. Gee - let's give a $250,000 ARM loan to someone who has a history of not paying their bills, works minimum wage and does not have to provide income documentation and see what happens.
This industry brought this crisis upon themselves and our country, and I for one am PISSED that the government is suggesting that we as taxpayers step in, bail them out (i.e. Bear Sterns), and be on the hook for any losses. YES - greedy borrowers are to blame as well - but the decision to grant credit rests with the lenders and the bankers who put together those risky deals.
Geek Squad is looking for a few good men
@GrantGannon: I'm in the same boat. I was laid off in July last year, finally found a contract-to-hire job in November. I was doing great there, and two months short of the line a big client of theirs (the one I was hired to work with) cut the work in half. They asked if I could work at home on an "as needed" basis, and that's where I am now: Sending out resumes to the same companies I did last year, with little to no action. I'm giving it another month, then applying for two lesser paying jobs anywhere I can find them..... Fast food included.
I have a few suggestions.
The Army is hiring.
Or Haliburton.
Maybe KBR.
Maybe force them to live off of unemployment while doing mandatory volunteer work helping the poor.
Low paid security guard keeping an eye on all those foreclosed homes that are getting trashed.
The local convenience stores are always hiring.
Dog kennel cleaner.
Septic tank spelunker.
Bed pan cleaner.
Rent boy.
I am having a hard time feeling sorry for this guy.
Ah.. The heart of the consumerist. I love it. Good people are out of work and suffering and its a joke. Most of these people are hard working honest folks. I know a lot of mortgage people who are really hurting right now.
You know who isnt suffering? The dirty ones. The dishonest folks are always able to make a living.
I think we need some kind of "newer deal" where we put these guys to work on public projects to reverse some of the damage they've done-
Maybe tearing down mcMansions and building public parks and libraries in their place?
@Steve Trachsel, Ace: Amen. Most of these people were just doing their jobs. Some were shady, but many weren't. Most importantly, they didn't make many of the strategic decisions that put us in the spot we are today.
I'm sympathetic to this guy, but only as much as I would be for laid-off dotcommers or auto workers. Your industry is imploding - figure out what ELSE you can do, because your old job won't come back (or at least, not soon enough to help you).
Yes, being unemployed sucks, but it doesn't make you special.
@bohemian: I'm not a mortgage banker, but I appreciate your suggestions. Hopefully your job won't lay you off as the economy tanks because of this mess, and you won't need to take one of those jobs yourself.
@bohemian:
Good list. You should hold onto it as a reminder of your compassion if you ever find yourself out of work.
@MercuryPDX: I almost turned a hobby (running) into a temp job by picking up a shift at a local running shoe store. I found that drawing unemployment insurance would be only slightly less than what I would have made at the shoe store.
Again, if this guy is holding out because he thinks he 'deserves' a job that pays what he used to make selling junk loans, then he needs a serious attitude adjustment. You do what you need to do to pay the bills. If he's got savings and wants to hold out, good, that's what they're there for and what I did.
@Steve Trachsel, Ace: I knew you'd be here my good man. And you know that I couldn't agree with you more. Having worked for one of the GSEs for the past couple of years (until a month ago) I know how many honest people there are out there. It's lacking in class and character to wish continued unemployment on just about anyone.
And to whomever made the crack about the loss mit departments, that group at the GSE I was at were among the hardest working people I have ever encountered in my professional life. They came in early and left late and did everything they could to help people. A big part of this that no one talks about is the reluctance of a majority of delinquent borrowers to respond to their lenders' calls and letters when the borrower starts to get in trouble - and when they finally do, it's too late.
Male prostitution?
@TakingItSeriously: How does this help your neighbor you ask?
Well...
It doesn't. System is broken needs fix'n.
They can work at McDonald's. They all helped to cause the issues with the mortgage market, along with borrowers attempting to purchase way above their means. If the mortgage fols had done their jobs properly, they would still have employment in that field. It is your own responsibility to make sure you keep your job by doing it the best you can and looking out for the interests of your employer and customers both.
Wal Mart is hiring.